Music Honors: Celebrating The Best Recurring Party Noms.

Let’s Get Intimate With The 2019 Central Track Music Honors’ Best Recurring Party Nominees, All Of Which Are Guaranteed Good Times.

With voting now open (and running through February 13!) in our first-ever Central Track Music Honors, we wanted to again acknowledge that we understand how approaching our ballot of 51 separate categories can feel like a bit of a task for those who aren’t paid to watch the scene as closely as we are. To that end, we’ve decided to dedicate some space on our site during this open voting period to breaking down some of our categories’ nominees a little more deeply. This below post aims to do just that. Don’t like what you see and hear? That’s cool, too! You can also write in your own top honors choices for each categories. The important thing, we think, is that you just pay a little mind to some of the amazing art that’s being created in this town — and that you express your appreciation for those talents with your votes. You can do just that — up to five times total, but only once per 24 hours — right here. Now, it’s time for the breakdown!

It’s a major task drawing a crowd to a standalone event — believe us, we know.

That’s really something, too, consider how these events are in many ways the bedrock of what the Dallas scene is built upon.

From the talent’s perspective, these night’s provide a regular gig — the chance to buffer your income a bit, hone your chops and develop and audience while shaping your brand.

From the venues’ perspectives, these night’s add a little stability in both your booking duties and your bottom line, while also building a familiarity with your space to local crowds and giving you the chance to meet new talents for future bookings.

From the audience’s perspective, these nights are, beyond a great window into the tip of the local talent icebergs, something to look forward to on the regular while you carve out your own space in this crazy city and meet like-minded folks who share your interests.

That in mind, let’s take a moment in the below space to look a little more closely at, appreciate and celebrate the seven CTMH nominees for Best Weekly Recurring Party. Then, once you’re done, head here and vote for your favorite.

Disco, TX

Photo by Karlo X. Ramos.

Since kicking off this party as a monthly bash hosted in the penthouse of the Stoneleigh Hotel, DJ Blake Ward has since taken his party all across the city — most recently to Deep Ellum spots like Ruins and Sons of Hermann Hall. Wherever the venue, though, this bash thrills. That’s thanks to Ward’s all-out commitment to each party’s theme, which is often chose to perfectly blend with the setting. But let’s not leave out the attendees of these soirees when doling out credit: It’s their costumed ways that really sell these Disco, TX deals as can’t-miss events.

Brand New Money Party

Photo by Breanna Loose.

Where The Outfit, TX goes, parties follow. So it only made sense that the Dallas rap group eventually started throwing parties of its own, and in its own image. Enter the Brand New Money Party concept, which got its sea legs at Dada in Deep Ellum but has most recently been exploring such climes as the Design District’s IQ Haus as the settings for this swaggiest of recurring Dallas turn-ups.

Big Bang!

Photo by Brian Knowles.

It started at Beauty Bar, put in a stint at the lamented basement at The Travis/Rio Room, then came back to Beauty Bar — until this past summer, DJ Sober moved his long-running and revered weekly Big Bang! series to Deep Ellum’s The Double Wide and converted it to a monthly. The lesson here — established through prior relocations and hammered homed by this most recent re-branding — is that the DJ really does make the party. And DJ Sober, it’s clear now, makes a particularly uplifting one.

3links2sdays

Photo by Pete Freedman

For 12 years now, the live Dallas hip-hop collective CoLab has owned Tuesdays in this town, most recently through its involvement in Deep Ellum venue Three Links’ recurring free Tuesday night gigs called 3Links2sdays. Each week, CoLab swaps out headlining duties with its partners-in-residency and -sound Friday’s Foolery, with a different Area artist tackling the opening slot week in and week out. It’s a successful formula, and anyone who’s ever seen how packed Links’ room gets around midnight on the traditional “slow” nights that are Tuesdays can attest to that. Hell, you don’t even need to see it; you can straight up feel the warm vibes whenever you pop in to this consistent party.

Emo Nite (RBC/2513 Deep Ellum)

Photo by Annie Devine.

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug — and at Emo Nite, they inject a fiery, turn-of-the-millennium flavor of that shit right into your veins. An offshot of the Emo Nite LA concept, the Dallas version is helmed by the Third String Productions brand, which knows a thing or too of the era being celebrated by its guest DJs’ playlists. That’s because, for the past 15 or so years TSPR has been the entity bringing the bands of this genre through town on tour. That proximity to the action pays off for Dallasites, too, as its not a rare occurrence to see the musicians whose music is being honored pop in for a surprise appearance. And, well, when that happens? It’s like the phrase “Panic At The Disco” come to life.

Outward Bound Mixtape Sessions

Photo by Liz Kensinger.

The kids you could always find lingering around the musics rooms, art classes and A/V clubs in high school didn’t stop hanging out after graduation. They just started going to RBC each Monday night to hang out at Stefan Gonzalez’s long-running, open-armed celebration of all stripes of creative urges. You never quite know what’s going to manifest at these weekly offerings — you’re just as likely to stumble across a tight post-punk touring band as you are an ambient artist from around the way — and that’s the appeal here. Gonzalez takes the “Mixtape” portion of this event’s name incredibly seriously, and he knows well that the best experiences tend to bring in influences from all corners. He’s been able to keep the party going for as long as he has for a reason.

DFW Jam Session

Photo by Brandon Mikeal.

Hosted by Erykah Badu music director R.C. Williams and his bandmates in The Gritz, this more-than-a-decade-old weekly may have just moved its Wednesday night offering from its long-running home at Deep Ellum’s Prophet Bar to a new venue in Expo Park’s Sandaga 813, but everything else about the event has remained the same. And thank goodness for that: This jam session is open to anyone, and gives the city’s up-and-coming talents an incredible forum to flash their abilities right alongside (and often in collaboration with) the Grammy-winning talents who weekly participate in this event, as well as the many high-profile touring names that make sure to stop in and take part in the action whenever they can. A true gem, there’s really no another event quite like it in the city.

Pete is the founder, editor and president of Central Track. He is the former music editor of the Dallas Observer. His work has been published in The Daily Beast, Deadspin, LA Weekly, Village Voice, Spin Magazine, The Miami Herald and The Toronto Star, among other major publications. The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies has honored his long-form narrative writing and his blogging efforts alike. In 2009, NBCDFW.com named him one of the 25 Most Interesting People in DFW, a fact he remains all too eager to bring up at dinner parties.